WRAPPED IN NATURE

Tigernut and Banana Ice cream with Golden Beepollen

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The season for icecream has begun wohooo.....

We like to experiment in the freezer by making our own Ice Cream – one of our favourites is this one with BANANA, CASHEW NUTS, TIGERNUT MILK (chufa/horchata) sprinkled with fresh BEEPOLLEN; a perfect sprinkle for homemade ice cream since the fresh bee pollen is to be stored in the freezer anyway.

Just a little about bee pollen; it is said that if you are not used to eating it, you should start with small amounts per day since it is quite a powerful superfood (full of vitamins, minerals, almost all the different amino acid, together with digestive enzymes). The fresh bee pollen is the best and most nutrient dense one and it should be kept in the freezer or alternatively the fridge to keep staying as fresh. Also being the pollen the bees collect from the flowers it should preferably be organic to avoid pesticides etc. If you want to know more about bee pollen I could recommend this link

Since we (both adults and kids) have been eating fresh bee pollen regularly for some years now, we would take approx. 1 teaspoon a day (though not everyday) – either on its own dissolving it in the mouth or as here, on our homemade ice cream (or on our Black Seeds Snack Bar, link here).

..... everytime we make these Ice Cream they tend to turn our with a different tone between almost white to dark beige – depending on how ripe the bananas are....!

All that has to be done is to start by blending the cashew nuts till they turn into nutbutter, then you add the banana and the nutmilk (you can use any type of nutmilk, we like it with Tigernut milk reminding us of our many visits to Valencia!!). The texture can be quite thick with almost no milk or thinner with more milk – it will either way freeze well and make a smooth ice cream, we get good results with the following mix ratios:

1 cup cashew nuts

1 large banana

1 cup nutmilk (*recipe for Tigernut milk below)

about 1/3 cup fresh bee pollen

If you want the bee pollen on top of the ice cream you should start with sprinkling the pollen into the ice cream moulds first and then pour in the ice cream. You can also sprinkle the bee pollen after pouring in the ice cream blend - it depends of which ice cream moulds you use. Leave the ice cream in freezer for at least 8 hours.

We make them as popcicle-icecream or in different icecube moulds and use them as desert together with fruit or for example our Chocolate Cake of Black Beans, Sweet Potato and Beetroot (link to recipe here).

*Our recipe for Tigernut milk:

1. Soak 150 g Tigernuts for min. 8 hours

2. Mix Tigernuts with 1 liter of water, 2-3 medjoul dates, 1-2 teaspoon cinnamon, a spoon fresh lemon (if you want it more sweet add another date) in the blender